1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heart/lung machine base for a heart/lung machine.
2. Description of the Background Art
Various bases are known upon which heart/lung machines are positioned. These heart/lung machines are used during open heart surgery and other procedures to replace the function of the heart and lungs. A surgeon will insert tubes into the heart and blood vessels so that the patient's blood can be drained to the heart/lung machine, processed and pumped back into the patient.
Sterilized disposables such as tubing, filters, reservoirs and oxygenators are mounted onto the heart/lung machine. These disposables are used for one procedure and then discarded. The heart/lung machine is also composed of reusable hardware which does not come into contact with the patient's blood. Such modular hardware is mounted on a special cart or "base".
Conventional machines are configured in any number of ways but these configurations are often limited by the base upon which the machines are mounted. Currently, a heart/lung machine includes at least an arterial pump, a ventricular vent pump, a cardiotomy sucker pump, a cardioplegia delivery pump and other components.
Each of the pumps will propel blood or other substances to or from the patient. The machine sets close to the patient during surgery so that the tubing length can be as short as possible. There are several medical advantages to having short tubing length, most of which involve blood conservation.
Present heart/lung machine bases, however, impose limitations upon how short the tubing can be. Current machines make it necessary for the blood to travel a circuitous route from the patient, through the disposable components and back to the patient. The reasons for these limitations involve the fact that the heart/lung machines are designed to satisfy many requirements other than tubing length. Among these requirements are visibility (the ability of the operator to see all of the components), access (the ability of the operator to reach all the components) and protection of the fragile components from accidental breakage by personnel standing at the surgical table.
Due to these other criteria, existing heart/lung machine bases often sacrifice shorter tubing length for improved access and fragile component protection. Also, with such conventional heart/lung machine bases, assembly of the components of the heart/lung machine before each surgical operation can be difficult.
In other words, while there may be access to the components during operation of the pump, it can be awkward to assemble the circuit for heart/lung machines on conventional bases.
Also, in prior art heart/lung machine bases, the machine is vertically stationary during use thereby increasing tubing length in order to accommodate raising and lowering of the operating table upon which the patient is located. Also, because these bases are stationary in use, an operator is required to clamp the tubing when decreased venous drainage is desired.
Accordingly, a need in the art exists for a simple and effective heart/lung machine base which provides for short tubing length, visibility of components, easy access and protection of fragile components.